


even if you can't see me

by theblueberryreign



Series: training trio week 2020 [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Character Turned Into a Ghost, Gen, Ghosts, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25992967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theblueberryreign/pseuds/theblueberryreign
Summary: day 3 of training trio week 2020(angst/comfort/casual)---There’s a certain pain and joy resting heavily in Kaito’s chest as Shuichi, Maki and Himiko step out from the rubble.“They did it.” Kaede says, coming to float beside him disbelievingly. “They actually did it.”“Ha, I knew they could.” Kaito smiles weakly, he points a finger and a small stone that Shuichi could've definitely tripped on wobbles and rolls away. Not as strong as Rantaro or Kaede. Kaito hoped he wouldn't be a ghost long enough to reach their levels of power.
Relationships: Harukawa Maki & Momota Kaito, Harukawa Maki & Momota Kaito & Saihara Shuichi, Harukawa Maki & Saihara Shuichi, Momota Kaito & Saihara Shuichi
Series: training trio week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1883560
Comments: 8
Kudos: 36





	even if you can't see me

There’s a certain pain and joy resting heavily in Kaito’s chest as Shuichi, Maki and Himiko step out from the rubble. 

“They did it.” Kaede says, coming to float beside him disbelievingly. “They actually did it.”

“Ha, I knew they could.” Kaito smiles weakly, he points a finger and a small stone that Shuichi could've definitely tripped on wobbles and rolls away. Not as strong as Rantaro or Kaede. Kaito hoped he wouldn't be a ghost long enough to reach their levels of power.

“Wh-what’s wrong?” Tenko asks, drawing Kaito's attention back to the scene as she floated around Himiko in circles. “Why aren’t they moving?”

“I just, I don’t believe it. Ah but.. I don’t really have any logic behind that.” Shuichi says, they’re talking about the killing game now, and Kaito can see the gears in Shuichi’s mind turning. 

And for a moment Shuichi turns around and looks in his direction. For a moment, Kaito thinks Shuichi might be able to see him, but no. Shuichi is simply staring into nothing, looking through him as he ponders.

“One of Kaito’s hunches, huh?” Himiko giggles, and the three of them (plus the dead astronaut) share a smile before eventually, the survivors set off. 

The dead follow them out, of course.

\---

Five years after the game, and despite ghostly powers, Kaito had been unable to make himself useful to his sidekicks, or even make sure they’d felt his presence.

He had no where else to go though, except maybe back to the academy so he stayed.

Shuichi and Maki lived together as roommates. Himiko had been with them for the first three years, but eventually, the young mage had found a job that paid high but required long hours and she hadn’t wanted her best friends to stay up waiting for her. Tenko had gone with.

They were close-by, especially if you were a ghost that could teleport. He had visited them often enough, simply wasting time talking with Tenko. The visits stopped when the aikido master passed on a couple of months ago.

She’d simply wanted to make sure Himiko would be okay, and once she was sure, Tenko had seen the light and gone.

Kaito thinks that's what he wants too, that that’s his last purpose here on Earth too. To make sure his sidekicks will be okay.

They weren’t okay, not yet. Time could heal all wounds, but often still left scars.

Nightmares came often but they dealt with them and confided with each other, calling each other by their first names after Maki sobbed and sobbed when she heard Harumaki in the wrong context shortly after a nightmare. 

She hadn’t had a problem with the other 2 survivors addressing her by that name before that night, even encouraging it. Then she had cried her eyes out on Shuichi’s shoulder as she said it was all her fault. That night in the hangar was all her fault, and Kaito had been unable to help at all. Weak in death and weak in life, he supposed.

He sighs, and flops onto the couch beside Maki and a sudden shiver runs through the girl but there’s no other acknowledgement that she saw him or knew he was there.

Shuichi gets up and asks Maki if she’d like to rent a movie and soon after, spirited away begins to play on the two’s old secondhand tv.

The two of them fall asleep there, and it isn’t like Kaito can even sleep, but he silently moves the blanket back onto either Shuichi or Maki as they toss and turn throughout the night.

The games ended on an early December afternoon, and 5 years later on that very date the first snow has fallen and so it’s a cold night.

The fact that the two didn’t even notice it was the anniversary cements the idea in his mind that his sidekicks would be okay, and for some reason he can’t move on yet.

\---

Finally, he lasts 4 more months.

Maki rushes into Shuichi’s room as the detective screams and cries in an awful way, begging someone to forgive him, and he was just trying to protect everyone else, he didn’t mean to condemn them to their death.

It’s a common nightmare, and Kaito doesn’t know which culprit he’s dreaming of, and even worse, knows that it could be him.

He badly wants to tell him that no one blamed him, that all the dead understood and only wanted the best for the three survivors.

Maki shakes him roughly, and Kaito lightly loosens the blankets around him so Shuichi isn’t extremely entangled when finally, finally he shoots up, breathing heavily, and apologizing to Maki rather than someone long gone.

Maki comes back with a cup of tea, and the stars twinkle brightly in the sky.

“Do you think he’s up there, Maki? Kaito I mean.” Shuichi asks, huddling in his blankets.

I will be, Kaito thinks, watching over you two. Yet for the past years, he'd been here.

“Yeah,” Maki says, sounding sure of herself.

A silence falls between the two.

“Was your dream about him?” Maki asks, and Shuichi shakes his head shortly.

"He was there, but it wasn't about him. I-it was everyone, they all said, ah.. mean things."

Maki nods and silence falls between them, a heavy kind rather than a comforting one. 

They gaze through the window, staring at the constellations- Kaito knows all of their names and stories.

"H-he-" Shuichi broke himself off with a soft sob. "He said he had been proud of me. Past tense. Until I failed, until I ruined his and Ouma's plan."

“He's still proud of you, wherever he is. That’s not even a question, Shuichi.”

"Like I could be mad at you for just doing your job," Kaito adds, addressing the air. Being a ghost sucked.

Shuichi shrugs, and curls in on himself sobbing softly. Fuck knows if the detective'll feel a hug- Kaito embraces him and convinces himself that he was doing more than just giving Shuichi the shivers.

Hours later, the sunrise is well past and neither of the two have even yawned yet.

"Ah.. I guess you were right earlier," Shuichi offers and Maki looks at him, raising an eyebrow and Shuichi's cheeks redden with embarrassment. 

"The nightmare got to me. Kaito is proud of us, wherever he is."

The first time Shuichi had ever said that sentence explicitly. Even when Maki said it after one of plenty of nightmares, the detective had simply hummed along, not truly believing her.

There's a warmth in Kaito's chest, something that feels like his grandmother's apple pies and a warm bed and training sessions with the two strong survivors he'd stayed with for so long.

Both of his sidekicks knew he was proud of them, and Kaito couldn't think of anything that comforted him more in the world.

He’ll go into the light tomorrow. His actual last day on Earth will be spent with Saihara Shuichi and Harukawa Maki.


End file.
